Re: Post Results from the All-Out Kate Bush Poll

[v129j6ed@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (This is F.U.N.)]

In article <9209251223.AA05602@relay1.UU.NET>, DKASTENS@dosuni1.rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE (Dirk Kastens) writes...
>Greetings,
>Thanks very much for the poll.
>But I think, the result needs some interpretation.
>A great problem in statistical analysis are the missing values. If you
>make an interview and some people don't respond to a question, how can
>you rate the result?
>In the Kate poll you didn't care about the missing values, you just
>calculated the mean (sum of points / number of values). Is this
>correct?
>Let's examine one extreme case:
>song A = 1 x 10 points, 35 x missing value  -> mean: 10/1   = 10
>song B = 35 x 10 points, 1 x 9 points       -> mean: 359/36 = 9.9722
>Which one is better?
>Regarding the albums we find Vol.1 before TSW. But only half of the
>voters gave out points for Vol.1, whereas all of them valued TSW. The same
>with the new number one song Under the Ivy.
>I think that it's more fair to order the songs by the sum of points.
>What do you think?

I always found that knowledge is power.  The fact is that if someone does
not know a song, why should that harm it's average.  The truth is we don't
know how someone will vote for it.  The assumption I went under was that
total points mean nothing.

Let's use another extreme example:
song A = 300 points, 60 votes
song B = 298 points  30 votes

This could be disadvantageous to a song voted 1 more time than another.
"Suspended in Gaffa" and the "Jig of Life" would have tied for the top.

The whole poll, from my point of view, was what people thought about each song.
That came out pretty well since all the songs were voted for over 60% of the
time.  

Using statistical method would have been better, but since I am a History
major, I am not sure how to set this up.


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"As your Mr.Spock said, The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few."
"A truism, like most of Spock's Epigrams. But on occasion, I'm afraid, cold
comfort." Jillian and James T. Kirk - "Star Trek - Debt of Honour"
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Jef Kolodziej                                                   The KaTeFan(tm)
v129j6ed@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu           State University of New York at Buffalo
History Major                                                  51 East NorthRup
(716) 837-9610                                                Buffalo, NY 14214